February new vehicle sales down 21.9 per cent
March 4, 2009 by George Skentzos
Official figures release today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) show that Australian new vehicle sales topped just 70,241 units for February 2009 – down 21.9 per cent compared to the same month in 2008.
This follows an 18.5 per cent slump for January 2009, with the industry now urging potential car buyers to take advantage of the significant opportunities that exist in the marketplace.
The automotive industry had been hopeful that additional stimulus from interest rate cuts last month and new fiscal policy measures announced by the federal government would help to underpin the market in coming months, but the market continues to slide.
“This result is consistent with the trend of recent months and reflects the impact of broader economic conditions on the new vehicle market,” FCAI Chief Executive Andrew McKellar said.
Toyota continues to lead the market in Australia, playing down the results in the context of the current global climate.
“When analysing this year’s market, it should be remembered that all-time records were being set during the first half of 2008 before the global financial crisis,” Toyota senior executive director sales and marketing, David Buttner, said.
Toyota accounted for 14,274 of the 70,241 total industry vehicle sales for February, with both figures representing the sixth-best February on record.
Mr Buttner added that February industry sales in previous years had topped 80,000 on just three occasions and between 70,000 and 80,000 only twice.
“At this stage, we anticipate the market will finish between 850,000 and 900,000 sales for 2009,” he said. “That means an overall decline of 10-15 per cent, which would compare favourably with most other markets including the United States.”
Holden continues to maintain its second place position behind Toyota with 9029 sales (12.9 per cent of the market), followed by Ford with 7396 vehicle sales (10.5 per cent market share).
Print it: 
No real suprise with any of them figures is there :p
With the extent of job losses announced in Feb. 2009; it is surprising the sales did not fall further than that. Some of the people who bought new cars in Feb. might soon be out of work and get the car repossessed by the finance company. Car repossessions have been reported to be rising rapidly.
With more job losses at Holden very soon and plant idle time for Commodore Holden are looking the worse of the makers here, just like their owner GM in the states. GM are just a money black hole if ya ask me.
Is there a website where I can find more details on monthly sales figures and ytd figures for each manufacturer/model?
I am thinking something similar to whats found in the back of wheels magazine. I found the FCAi website but cant find details of specific manufacturers, its just broken down into market segments.
Market average down 22%
Toyota down 30%.
Seems the volume leader may be bringing the market down average down with them.
blah Says:
Haven’t got full figures yet but hope this helps a little.
FORD down -21.4%
Ford 2009 (2008)
Ford Total 7,396 (9,405)
Ford Courier 4X4 0 (6)
Ford Escape 121 (187)
Ford F250 4X2 1 (10)
Ford Fairlane 1 (16)
Ford Falcon 2,386 (2,520)
Ford Falcon Ute 1,057 (1,207)
Ford Fiesta 798 (723)
Ford Focus 853 (1,310)
Ford Focus Coupe Cabriolet 32 (29)
Ford LTD 0 (0)
Ford Mondeo 314 (392)
Ford Ranger 4X2 438 (862)
Ford Ranger 4X4 473 (626)
Ford Territory 765 (1,299)
Ford Transit 115 (174)
Ford Transit Bus 15 (14)
Ford Transit C/C 27 (30)
HOLDEN down -27.1%
Holden 2009 (2008)
Holden Total 9,029 (12,386)
Holden Adventra 0 (0)
Holden Astra 1,149 (1,366)
Holden Astra Convertible 40 (58)
Holden Barina 846 (1,289)
Holden Caprice 99 (198)
Holden Captiva 911 (932)
Holden Colorado 4X2 304 (0)
Holden Colorado 4X4 731 (0)
Holden Combo 62 (84)
Holden Commodore 3,376 (4,312)
Holden Epica 221 (470)
Holden Rodeo 4X2 19 (497)
Holden Rodeo 4X4 27 (793)
Holden Statesman 60 (218)
Holden Utility 4X2 649 (1,454)
Holden Viva 535 (715)
TOYOTA down -31.1%
Toyota 2009 (2008)
Toyota Total 14,274 (20,703)
Toyota Aurion 968 (1,855)
Toyota Avensis 71 (92)
Toyota Camry (4 cyl) 1,564 (1,723)
Toyota Coaster 22 (26)
Toyota Corolla 2,769 (4,191)
Toyota Hiace Bus 177 (295)
Toyota Hiace Van 539 (950)
Toyota Hilux 4X2 1,025 (1,497)
Toyota Hilux 4X4 1,594 (1,828)
Toyota Kluger 825 (1,404)
Toyota Landcruiser PU/CC 395 (449)
Toyota Landcruiser Wagon 566 (1,005)
Toyota Prado 977 (1,262)
Toyota Prius 260 (262)
Toyota RAV4 854 (1,409)
Toyota Tarago 120 (175)
Toyota Yaris 1,548 (2,280)
Thanks Frontman this is what I had in mind.
Hope Frontman gives us the rest of the figures when/if he can get them.
It will be interesting to see the European, Japanese and Korean makes.
Will try but I usually only concentrate on these three as they are where my work takes me…..
I think you will see the likes of Hyundai propping the average back up to the 22%
How on earth can they see slides in sales of 20% per month, yet only predict the annual figures to be down around 10%???
I think we will see the annual average down by a comfortable 20%.
Could Toyota be the worse cause they arent offering as good a deals as Ford and Holden at the moment .
BM,
I think you will find its a case of the bigger they are…………
Yeah thata true Andrew but Ford and Holden seem to be offering some bargains at the moment …………. Not sure if its just on 08 stuff though ?
BM, I think you’ll find it has a lot to do with fleets, and in particular, commercial and rental being way down.
Yeah true I guess Bret,I can see that in Toyota Cruiser sales to the mining companies,Nickle mines are shutting down weekly over here at the moment ,price of Nickel has plummeted !
Still I dont think Toyota offer any where as good a deals off the floor from my experience buying from them as what Ford and Holden can !Depends what you buy I guess,who wants an Aurion against the new FG ?
Frontman – where do you get your figures from?
“who wants an Aurion against the new FG ?”
The ones who want less rattles and don’t care about RWD I suppose…
Dan,
get your hearing aid checked, i think thats whats rattling
Mark G, through connections at work sorry can’t give any more info. Will try to get all brands but we generally only get the three.
Dan, you gotta get out and actually drive vehicles if you are going to comment on them.
BM, FOrds deals are 08 plate related or runouts which are 08 plates anyways.
Maybe because Toyota brpought forward deliveries last year is the reason why they are suffering now?? Will see how much last years strategy affects them after March.
Indeed I do. Drove an FG rental last month. Guess what I heard coming from the dash and door trims? It only had 2K kays on the clock too…
So you left your toll money on the dash and your sunnies in the door,
I get that too
Dan, as a driver who owns a C63 AMG and G6E Turbo, I will say that my G6E turbo gives my C63 a DAMNED good run for its money! The G6E does not have any squeaks, rattles, or undue noise. I would go so far as to say it is actually quieter inside than the C63, and it actually rides nicer than the C63 also.
I needed a runabout so I bought the G6E turbo. It has certainly not disappointed me.
Not a lot of info here CA, maybe a top 10 list of makes and models would be good, or maybe you guys are still too busy at MIMS? Cant blame you really.
Damm u can get a 2009 xr6 for the price of a 2003 xr6. Im Goin in to see wat trade i can get for my car.
Thankyou G6E Turbo owner…….someone had to educate the guy !
LMAO again at such utter drivel…………….rattles at 2K kms
My other halfs Falcon XT has been faultless (i.e. 12K kms and rattle free and fault free) and unreal to drive! The lines grow on me as nicely designed and drives unreal.
The Falcon I had before my current FG was under my ownership for 5.5 years (i think it was), and not even it had any rattles or squeaks on the day i traded it. The only rattles i got was from items in the actual car.
The FG has nearly 9k clicks on it now and its better now than it was new because its loosened up a bit. No rattles, no squeaks.
I thought my Auto lights were going funny because they seemed to be really sensitive. I tried adjusting the lights on and off settings to the extremes, still no luck.
I then realised that the dash mat had slipped over the sensor on the dash
So its still a fantastic car
NM,
did she get the 6sp or just the 5 banger???
This is not a Toyo-bash, just something on news sites all over the world tonight, so I thought I’d C & P one version, I have a range of photos depicting an awful lot of stockpiling going on including 180 acres of metal sitting there so ther is a certain amount of fact in it.
Article from: Agence France-Presse
JAPANESE car maker Toyota has leased a cargo ship to store 2500 unsold cars at the Swedish port of Malmoe, where parking lots are already full due to plunging car sales, a port official said today.
“The Swedish-Norwegian company Wallenius Wilhelmsen has reached an agreement with Toyota to let them use the Morning Glory cargo ship to store some cars, and we load and unload the cars,” Bart Steijaert, in charge of car stocks at the Malmoe harbour, said.
More than 30,000 cars of all brands are currently piling up in the port, including the 2500 on board the 195-metre Morning Glory.
The port has a maximum capacity of around 27,500 cars, Mr Steijaert said.
A new parking lot is being built at the port to provide more space for cars and is due to be completed in April.
“Since last summer, we’ve had a lot of cars in the harbour and we started to lack parking areas as the car sales dropped dramatically, and then the vessel arrived on January 7,” Mr Steijaert said.
Car sales have come to a screeching halt around the world since the global economic crisis erupted late last year, leading to an overload of stocks.
In Sweden, only 14,603 cars were sold in February, a drop of 31.3 per cent from the same month a year earlier, statistics showed.][
Life’s pretty good when a G6ET is your ‘runabout’.
My FG XT has 31000km on the clock – small rattle behind the dash cluster & a nice big clunk sometimes appears when down-changing from 3rd to 2nd using the tiptronic.
Otherwise it is a great car that goes exceptionally well for a standard base model.
Hope this helps a little more………….
Top Australian Brands February 2009
Brand – Sales
1. Toyota – 14,274
2. Holden – 9,029
3. Ford – 7,396
________________________________________
Vehicle – Registered
1. Holden Commodore – 3,376
2. Mazda 3 – 2,989
3. Toyota Corolla – 2,769
4. Toyota Hilux – 2,613
5. Ford Falcon – 2,386
6. Hyundai Getz – 1,583
7. Toyota Camry – 1,564
8. Mitsubishi Lancer – 1,551
9. Toyota Yaris – 1,548
10. Hyundai i30 – 1,234
That’s the top ten for you.
Toyota is the only car company in Australia to sell more then 10 000 units per month even in times like now.
How good are they ??
I’ve noticed there’s one car missing from the top 10 figures provided by Frontman.. “The Game Changing Aurion”
What happened did it realise that no one was playing “the game” and decided to go off and Play with itself?
Toyota and Hyundai is doing much better in the market. Holden has got some arrogant dealers mainly in Perth, if they cant convince the customer, they treat very bad with them ultimately going to Toyota!
Aurion is basically a (modified) Camry. Try adding the 2 figures together to get a realistic answer.
Alan, we all know that.
Anyway Camry 1,564 + SFA = ?
If we’re talking sales from the same plant then add all of the Territorys, utes, wagons, Caprices etc for the Falcon/Commodore figures. See, it doesn’t always make as much sence as you think.
Looking for comaprative sales figures for Porsche, Ferrari, Maserati, Aston Martin and Lamborghini for 07/08 and 08/09 or calendar 07 and 08.
Can anyone help?
Please?
I’d be ever so grateful
JV